24/09/2010

• FROGS GALORE!

Given that I've illustrated dozens of frogs over the years you'd be forgiven for thinking that HFG was created exclusively for these fantastical amphibious artworks.

I've put frogs on postcards. Frogs on posters, illustrated sweet packets featuring frogs, written and illustrated books about frogs, designed children's games with frogs on the cover, frogs on the gameboard and even 3d frogs featured in the game.

Before I showcase the work of the last thirty years, here, as an introduction, are some of my froggy masterpieces.

I used balk at character drawing and found myself quite clumsy at sketching out figures and poses. But with practice, reading lots of interviews with master character designers and studying techniques, little by little I developed a fluency and now they seem to be one of the main stays of my freelance work.

I'm particularly pleased with the set I created for Razamatazz Magic, children's entertainers - hi Andy and Sue - the puppy dog and kitten are for them, as are the Santa and Rodney Rabbit.

I've produced Turkeys for Toblerone and Pandas for Panda Pops and filled a whole living room with little bunnies, offspring of their Airwick rabbit mum.

As a student I always wanted to design a chocolate bar. I have collections of chocolate and sweet wrappers and have bought and sold on Ebay to add to my collection.

When I actually designed the wrapper for Drifter it seemed like a dream come true, not only was my design and illustration on thousand of shelves all over the country but I got samples too! Free chocolate!

Dozens of further wrappers followed and I feel fairly confident that just about everyone in the country has seen or handled a Hot Frog confectionary design at some point in the last 15 years.

I've always maintained that I could almost earn my living entirely by illustrating nothing but fruit.

Fruit plays such a pivotal role in our lives that it's little wonder we illustrators are asked so frequently to supply the perfect strawberry, the wettest, freshest oranges and the crispest, most mouthwatering apples.

There is now an agency called Fruitman that I guess does just that. Right now I cannot think of a fruit that I have not yet illustrated, Rhubarb up until last month was top of that list but then 3 nice yoghurt pot jobs came my way and you can drool over the results.